We present a quantitative morphological study of high
redshift galaxies using data from a complete NICMOS imaging
survey of the Hubble Deep Field North. The NICMOS
H(1.6\mu) and J(1.1\mu) images sample rest frame optical
wavelengths for galaxies with z < 2.5. The high angular
resolution of the NICMOS images allows us to directly
compare quantitative morphological parameters of high
redshift galaxies with those of nearby galaxies observed at
similar rest-frame wavelengths. We classify the NICMOS-HDF
galaxies to a limiting magnitude of I \approx 27 using
asymmetry and rest-frame color. We also present methods for
directly comparing asymmetries measured from the NICMOS
images with those determined for a sample of ground-based
images of nearby galaxies which span all morphological
types.

We analyze the asymmetries of HDF galaxies as a function of
wavelength, comparing the optical WFPC2 to the near-IR
NICMOS images. We find that a large fraction of galaxies
with peculiar WFPC2 morphologies remain asymmetric in the
near-infrared NICMOS data. This suggests that the
asymmetries are not simply the consequence of observing
irregularly distributed star formation at blue/UV
wavelengths, but instead reflect the truly irregular
structural state of these galaxies, perhaps due to galaxy
interactions or mergers.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address
for comments about the abstract:
chris@astro.wisc.edu